Banana flowers and leaves

Every part of the Banana has a use

Bananas (Musa sapientum) is herb with a myriad of uses, tasty fruit being only one of them. It’s a herb because it doesn’t have a woody stem.

We use the leaves as plates for impromptu meals, they can also be used to steam other vegetables in. The flower makes a delicious meal when combined with coconut milk, called ‘Pusong ginataan’ in the Philippines (Jelina will be making this soon, so look out for it on her page ‘Jelina’s meals’ ).

Banana flowers are delicious when cooked

The juice of the flower stem is highly nutritious, being filled with all kinds of goodies. Unripe fruits are highly astringent (I dare you to eat one!) and are used to settle upset stomachs, acidity and diarrhoea.

Practically any part of the plant can be applied to wounds to stop bleeding, while the juice of the roots can be used to stop diarrhoea and wasting away from lack of appetite (though how can you lack an appetite when there’s bananas around?).

There are many uses for Bananas besides eating them and slipping on the peel